I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine

Music is one of humanity's oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Levitin is not your typical scientist--he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today's most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

Daniel J. Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician, and the author of four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music. He is dean emeritus at Minerva University, professor emeritus at McGill University, and adjunct professor at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He lives in California.

Review Quotes:

"Levitin shares why music is so powerful, what the latest science shows about its effects on our brains and how technology could help transform this art form into a kind of medicine."--Toronto Star

"Expand[s] our understanding of the power of music and its capacities to heal.... Levitin's melodious writing captures the imagination."--Henry Carrigan, No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music

"Essential to our understanding.... Hallelujah."--Diane Cole, Wall Street Journal

"For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr. Levitin, in this latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon."--Paul McCartney

"Lookin' back at my life, it's pretty easy to see how music has profoundly benefited my well-being, all while drawing me further & further into its mysteries?and there appears to be no end to this path. Dan Levitin's take on this mirrors mine?and he can both explain it and tease the possibilities presented."--Bob Weir, The Grateful Dead